Osceola sensor center deserves broad support: Editorial

Osceola County leaders swung and missed in the past couple of years on two plans to develop a prime parcel of county-owned real estate in Kissimmee near Florida's Turnpike.

Thank goodness, because a new plan could turn out to be a home run.

The Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, unveiled by Osceola commissioners and University of Central Florida officials, promises to create badly needed high-wage jobs in the county and across the region. UCF President John Hitt said it could be an "economic game changer."

Hitt, one of the architects behind Orlando's Medical City, knows a thing or two about economic development.

The center, set for 20 acres of the 400-acre Judge Farms property, would be a research and development facility for "smart" sensors — already found in cars, medical devices, appliances, smartphones and other staples of modern life. The annual global market for smart sensors is about $8 billion, but Hitt said it could soar to $1.9 trillion by 2020 as applications proliferate.

Here's how UCF, Osceola County and the other public and private partners behind the center envision their plan playing out: UCF researchers, already working on smart sensors, would accelerate their efforts at the 100,000 square-foot center. Advanced manufacturers, eager to capitalize on this cutting-edge technology, would be drawn to the region; some might locate on land adjacent to the center. Rick Weddle, head of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, said the center could spawn tens of thousands of jobs.

Central Florida has too few manufacturing jobs, which pay more than positions in the region's dominant industry, tourism. Statewide, 75,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared since 2007. But the center could give Central Florida a unique advantage in the cutthroat global competition for high-wage jobs.

The center's partners have committed about $100 million, but the center is expected to cost $195 million to build and operate for its first five years. The partners want the center at least partially open within a year to bid on a $150 million contract the U.S. Defense Department is expected to award in 2015. If it meets its ambitious timetable, the center also could be in the running for a $70 million federal grant for advanced manufacturing.

The partners hope to persuade state lawmakers to pony up a total of $125 million over the next five years, until the center's operations cover its costs. Lawmakers from both parties in Central Florida should be leading the charge.

Other local governments, likely to share some of the center's economic benefits, also should contribute. And the partners need to keep courting private investors, too. Every dollar they chip in is one fewer dollar from taxpayers.

When an opportunity this good to build and broaden Central Florida's economy comes along, leaders in the region simply can't afford to miss it.